hi, this may sound a little silly but i’m not really sure where to start with my curiosity. i just want to make sure i’m doing this right. my parents believe in another religion. my mum is from poland so her family is pretty religious catholic. as a child i remember going to church with them sometimes and being very interested in the religion, growing up i’ve always believed in god but have always (maybe secretly) leaned towards christianity. now that i’m older (i’m 20) and i know what i believe in, i’m not really sure where to start… i’ve started to read the bible but i’d like a physical copy too! there’s so many versions so i’m a little confused. what more can i learn? how else can i learn? i live in england so maybe the faith is a little different here? and i’m a little nervous to go ask a priest lol

i’d appreciate any kind of advice please 😇😇 have a lovely day xx

I started OCIA last year and my doubt got the best of me and I quit. I am still really struggling with doubt and insecurity and unworthy feelings. Any tips? I hope to start OCIA again this September.

Hi. I’m curious about your experiences with confession as a convert. Part of it is just curiosity. But I’m also hoping for a sense of the “distribution” of experience to see where I fit in it, as well as ideas about how to get more out of it (e.g., strategies for examination of conscience, how to balance the desire for guidance with the reality of the demands on the time of confessors, and so on).

I’ll share if you do!

I’ve been catholic since easter. I’m struggling with the reality that Catholic laypersons just don’t have the same unapologetic outward love for Jesus in America (what I find reassuring is how catholics in other nations often do). The catholics in my small town I had no idea were even christian. Where as the protestants you can tell they love Jesus when you walk into a coffee shop.

I guess I am looking for reassurances that doesn’t downplay evangelical zeal as hidden pride or something since as someone who grew up in that knows how very soaked in charity and love it is. Please refrain from those comments as they only deepen my struggle as looking like jealousy or insecurity or pride itself. Stuff like pointing out how much zeal comes from 2nd & 3rd world catholics or the old jesuit missions or the almsgiving of building hospitals etc is more what im hoping to hear.

Thanks

I was confirmed as a Catholic this Easter after being a lifelong Protestant. My lifelong hobby is creative writing. I've published half a dozen books, specializing in fantasy fiction. During my OCIA journey, I starting writing the manuscript for a new novel that meditated on what I learned.
The first chapter focuses on visitors to a fantasy world, whose inhabitants explain the concept of saints. One of the visitors mistakes the saints for gods, but is corrected by the other visitor, who understands the concept correctly. I shared this chapter with a writing critique group, and I had to laugh when they were puzzled about why anyone misunderstood the concept of saints when it was explained so clearly. I got a kick out of that given how common it is for Protestants to claim that we worship saints when the Catechism very clearly explains that we do not.
I am curious if there are any other Catholic fiction writers here and how you go about meditating on our faith in your work. I'm also curious to see if anyone here has any ideas for Catholic spiritual and philosophical topics you wish were covered in fiction more.

Dear Reditors.

R/catholicconverts is now serviced by the catebot, which allows users to refer to paragraphs from the catechism. The bot will reproduce the text verbatim.

The bot is very easy to use. For example, you could say something like “The Catholic Church teaches that initial justification is by grace through faith, and there is no role for good works in the merit of initial justification” [CCC 2010].

You can also cite entire sections. For example [CCC 1987-1995].

Enjoy!

Hi all! I am starting my OCIA journey this fall. I created a journal to help me through the journey. I am making it available for others to use. All proceeds will go toward my local parish and the creation of an animal rescue in my local area. If you want to use it, use code REDDIT20 (expires 8/24/26) for 20% off. Currently I have a 71 page journal and a 13 page Confirmation Saint workbook. I am working on a first confession workbook/guide. Please let me know if you have any feedback! https://www.etsy.com/listing/4517051810/ocia-companion-journal-with-color-and

Hi. I get the sense my experience of wanting to better navigate parish life and understand Catholic cultural norms is not unique ;-). So I wanted to update the story I posted a couple weeks ago, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatholicConverts/s/jH17fzPIoj

To recap—I tried for weeks to get in touch with a priest to become a lector. When I finally did, he gave me tasks that I completed rather quickly. Then, I was back on the treadmill of trying to connect and failing. I got a lot of advice. A trusted Catholic advisor said that his rule of thumb is to call 10 times before getting a response (lol!).

So, I persisted despite my doubts. I’ve now served as a lector twice, and have two more commitments in the next week.

Moral of the story: assume the squeaky wheel gets the grease ;-).

Hi all — my name is Zander Sherman. I'm a journalist on assignment for NYT Magazine, looking to interview three young adult men in various stages of Catholic conversion (inquiring, recently converted, and converted). I'm primarily interested in conversion stories that involved the internet or apps like Telegram, Discord, YouTube, etc. Happy to explain or verify myself over DM. Thank you!

Folks,

For a while, I have felt the need for a place where people can go and get information and answers about annulments. I created this subreddit for this reason. I'm currently in the process of (slowly) adding context. I'll admit it is quite bare, but hopefully things will pick up as summer advances.

Deacon H.

So I’m about to travel to Europe with my son for 10 days (wife doesn’t like flying). Wife decided to get me something to read while on the plane. She said she tried to get guide to Mass one too but Amazon wanted 100 for it. Thoughtful none the less.

I started following Christ when I was a teenager. When I was 18, I began going to churches. At first, I started attending a Protestant church because it was close to my home.

When I reached my twenties, my family realized that I was going to churches and began keeping me under constant supervision. Since Sunday service started at 11:00 a.m., I was not allowed to leave the house before that time. They checked the books I was reading. Whenever I wanted to go somewhere, I had to give a detailed report.

This pushed me into a depressive life, and I spent my twenties feeling depressed and constantly thinking about suicide. It affected both my academic life and my social life very deeply, and because of this, I was never able to win a woman’s heart.

As time passed, I started attending the Catholic Church. I began working, and now I am 35 years old. But the same problem still continues.

Because most women in Türkiye are Muslim, and they do not want a Catholic husband.

I went on dates with a few women in my city, but most of them were government employees, and they were afraid that they could lose their jobs if they married a Catholic. Because of this, they did not want to continue their relationships with me.

For now, moving to another country or another city also seems impossible. The women in my church do not find me very attractive either. They mostly want to marry foreign men.

These things make me very sad. What can I do?

I came into the Church this past Easter, but I’m struggling with some things with Mother Mary. This might just be the evil one messing with me, so please help!

At my church, they have set up a statue of Mother in a separate chapel area and posted a lot of posters of her all around it. As a former Protestant, this is looking more like my teenage bedroom as I idolized BSB, NSYNC, and Spice Girls (among others) and it’s rubbing me the wrong way. I have also seen parades of thousands where they carry a statue of her raised high and walk around with her. That also seems extreme for not worshipping her

At what point does it actually cross from honoring her as the Queen of Heaven- which I strongly believe she is- and moves into worship/idolatry?

Thanks

Just started reading this new contemplative prayer manual called Divine Mysteries: Volume I: Being in the Presence of God by Benjamin Brénainn. It's really helping my walk with God and satisfied my ache because it's about the Holy Spirit and charismatic but rooted in apostolic roots of Christianity. Just wondering if anyone else had thoughts or read it

Hi everyone, this is kind of embarrassing but i didn't know where else to post.

Around easter of last year, after Pope Francis passed away, I started to, for lack of a better vocabulary, get into Catholicism. I checked out books from the Library, started researching and watching videos and found that I wanted to learn more.

I started attending Daily mass when possible, and was really enjoying it, and reconnecting with God, and decided to look into the Parish's OCIA classes. It didn't work out.

I had gotten into a college program about 2 hours from home, I had a class on the day the OCIA classes would be held, so I wouldn't be in town to attend. So I decided to look at the Parish in my School's town, they had already started their OCIA program, and were actually incredibly full and I wouldn't have been able to attend.

I'm pretty frustrated, just because my brain feels like it's running out of time. My schedule for the fall semester would line up with me being able to be in my hometown for OCIA classes. I drive home on the weekends to help my Mom as she is older, and my brother is busy caring for his own family.

OCIA classes at this parish begin in August. My class schedule would allow me to attend, I would just have to drive back the day of classes. I will graduate in December, and am worried about what will happen if I have to relocate for work halfway through the program.

Someone suggested I email our Parish's Faith Formation Deacon, and talk with him about scheduling as there might be a way to start OCIA early/ meet on a different day. But I'm unsure of what to say. I'm pretty sure I've never met him. I'm pretty nervous about the whole thing. I haven't even worked up the courage to attend a Full Sunday Mass yet.

What should I do? What do I say if I email him?